Canberra United's Cath Brown chooses W-League over AFWL

Sport: Canberra United has its first home game of the year against Western Sydney Wanderers at McKellar Park. Catherine Brown of Canberra United and Michelle Carney of Sydney Wanderers in action. 17th of November 2013. Canberra Times Photograph by Katherine Griffiths

Sport
Canberra united player Catherine Brown in action during the game against Perth Glory at Viking park
The Canberra times
7 December 2014
Photo Jay cronan

Canberra United veteran Catherine Brown says the decision to play W-League over AFLW came back to where she was most comfortable.

Brown said the league has come a long way since she joined in 2012 but emphasised the push for professionalism didn't happen overnight.

"I signed my first W-League contract for $500 and got $50 a game after that, in the context of a standard yearly wage $10,000 isn't heaps but it's huge in the context of our sport," Brown said.

"The main area for concern has always been finance because we juggle multiple jobs with training and a lot of us will still have to do that, but it's a huge jump forward for what we've been working for.

"We're getting towards the end goal but we've been pushing for so long that something had to give, we've been asking for this since the inception of women's sport really."

Brown is a nurse with ACT Health but hopes to impress Garriock enough to be wearing lime green in United's season opener against Melbourne Victory on October 28.

"We've got a four-week trial period starting on Monday and Catherine being from Canberra and a past player, I would love her to be in the squad, but I just need to see her play at that level again [post injury]," Garriock said.

"I won't have most of my team over the next four weeks, our Young Matildas players are preparing for [World Cup] qualifiers and our internationals haven't all been released."

Garriock will lead a largely inexperienced side this season with Lisa de Vanna, Hayley Raso, Emma Checker and Jenna McCormick all expected to leave the capital.